Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Cassie's Journal - May 5, 2015

Okay, here comes the double update, as
promised, but it’s been another long day; so I’m still going to keep this on
the short side.

Monday morning started out with Tai Chi by
the river; followed by the normal week day breakfast; and then I had a bit of
extra work to do while getting ready for the day to make sure my room and the
lounge were presentable for company.I
did a bit of Magi-powered cheating to make all of that happen; though don’t
take that to mean that my rooms were a mess – that doesn’t happen because it’d
drive me nuts.

I missed out on the action at home while at
school, but Mom was busy doing some running around before the Malloys arrived;
and then she was busy having fun with Angela, the twins, Valerie, and Marcus
while Terry pretty much got straight to work once they were in town.Most people probably wouldn’t think that it
was fun, but Terry looked happy enough after starting his work day out with
meetings; and then going to work on surveying and taking soil samples and
readings of the ground.I hadn’t
mentioned it in my journal before, but he brought a couple of his guys along to
help with that.They’re staying at the
Inn; so I doubt he’ll have a problem recruiting for the rest of his visits
here!

Terry had decent weather for his outdoor
work, and dodged some rain that was in the forecast for the morning; but we did
get thunderstorms rolling through here by around six o’clock; so Michael’s
first baseball practice of the season was cancelled.That worked out great for us because we were
able to have dinner with my family and the Malloys; and then spend the evening
with them too.I really loved getting to
have a long chat with Terry and Angela; along with some cuddle time with
Marcus.Valerie mostly played with Ethan
and Ehlana; but I did the bedtime stories with them before tucking her – and Ehlana
– in for the night.

Having to do the early bedtime because we
have company wasn’t all that thrilling for the twins; but they just played on
their iPads once the rest of us had gone downstairs until they were ready to
sleep.Knowing them, ‘playing’ meant
reading their college textbooks or doing something else study-related, but that’s
what I was doing after going to bed too; so I can’t say much about that.Michael stayed until ten; he dashed home
during a little break in the rain – after our front porch goodnight hugs and
kisses; and then I came up to my room to get started on my work while leaving
the parents to continue their visit, since they were waiting for Marcus to wake
for his next feeding before heading to bed too.

You already know that I fell asleep before
getting around to my journal update, and that was at least partly because I had
a very boring archive assignment that put me right off to sleep sometime around
three o’clock.Mom can’t do lessons with
us until Wednesday night; so she gave me some extra reading instead.I did my archive assignment first tonight to
avoid a second un-scheduled nap time in a row; but it wasn’t easy to stay awake
through it either.I know that Mom,
Ethan, Ehlana, and I are so amazing that you might not believe this; but Magi Masters
of millennia-past had a tendency to be very boring when it came to their
writings.

Anyway, that pretty much covers the news
from Monday; so let’s get to the action from today.

Happy 20th Birthday, Stephanie;
and Happy 4th Birthday, Sophia!

Michael, Lucas, Rebecca, and I did a joint
gift for Stephanie, and sent it along with the gifts that Miranda and Jacob had
sent to her; and we did a breakfast video chat with her.That worked out great for me, since I got to
have a bonus Jacob Stone breakfast this week; but I did miss out on that time
with the Malloys instead.Since we were
busy with that instead, Michael skipped his morning weight training; and we
enjoyed the extra time with his family before needing to head for school with
Rebecca and Rowen.

I don’t have any news from school; though I
was busy all day straight through until after band practice.That kicked into high gear after that,
because we had to hurry over to the Bassett’s house to be there in time for
Sophia’s birthday dinner.She had an
afternoon party that was ending with the dinner; so Ethan and Ehlana had been
there most of the afternoon – and had Valerie with them for most of that time
so that she could have fun playing the games too.Valerie is a year to a year and a half younger
than most of Sophia’s friends, but there were a couple of younger kids there
with their parents and older sibs for her to play with.Mom and Angela were there for a while too;
but were home by the time that Michael and I got there.

Rebecca had been helping out with the party
since getting finished school for the day, and though dinner was nearly ready
by the time that Michael and I got there; we jumped in to help out with kid
control; and then did as much of the clean-up as we could before needing to
move on to our teen praise team practice.The dinner fun with the kids was definitely on the hyper side after they’d
been running around all afternoon and had already consumed lots of treats by
then; and we loved every minute of it.

That made switching to praise team mode –
especially when we’re getting ready for the Memorial Day weekend service – a bit
tougher; but that practice went well too.Michael and I stayed a bit later after the rest of the teens went home
so that we could do a couple of run-throughs of the Mother’s Day song Stacey
picked for us; and she was thrilled with what we’re doing with it; so we’re
happy campers too.

Michael came home with me after practice,
and though we didn’t have much time for another visit; we did spend what time
we could with the Malloys since they’ll be on the way home again before we’re
finished school tomorrow.We ended up
spending more time with Valerie than with Angela, Terry, and Marcus; but we
still had a short visit with them once we had Valerie tucked in and off to
sleep for the night.

This time, Michael stayed until ten-thirty
before going home; and that’s why I got another late start to my work and
studying.It was after eleven before I
was in bed with Mandy and my computer, and since I didn’t get everything done
last night; I made up for that tonight.It’s past three-thirty now and I am definitely ready for the down time,
so I’ll spare you the boring details of my work, language studies, and archive
reading; and just get straight to the sleeping part of my day.

While Terry will be doing a bit more work
in the morning, things should quiet down around here a bit for the next few
days.If we get the rain that’s in the
forecast too, we might not even have any extra baseball action either, though I’d
be okay with that – especially if it means I can have a normal work night
Wednesday and get to sleep early tomorrow night!

It seems obvious to me that I have moved
sleeping up to number one on my to-do list now, so I’m out of here; and, until
next time...